Ryan Mullen was a fantastic winner of the elite road title in Westmeath last month and the vets' and elite women will have their delayed title races on the same course in two months after some great work by Lakeside Wheelers Mullingar to make the big day happen all over again (Photo: Kevin Monaghan)
The best elite women and veteran men in the country will have to stay in top shape until the very end of the domestic season if they harbour ambitions of becoming national road race champion for 2014.
News has now emerged that the title-deciding races will not take place until Saturday, September 20th, after the forced cancellation of both events last month.
On that occasion, in the last week in June, Lakeside Wheelers Mullingar had been due to stage three events over Saturday and Sunday the 28th and 29th; with the vets' and women's races to be held on Saturday and the elite men's event to follow the next day.
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However, while the time trial races went off without a hitch on evening of Thursday 26th, and the elite men's road race was held on Sunday as planned, a fatal car crash near the course on Saturday morning forced the cancellation of the vets' and women's road races that day.
The vets’ race had been scheduled to start at 11am followed by the women’s decider at 2pm.
It came down to a two-sprint between winner Hugh Mulhearne and runner-up Greg Swinand last year and the outcome of tomorrow’s contest will be influenced by the same two riders, either of whom would make a fantastic champion in September (Photo: Toby Watson)
The fatal road traffic accident, unconnected with the racing, occurred just off the course at 7.30am.
Three women and a 10-year-old child tragically lost their lives, forcing significant road closures. The diverted traffic was rerouted onto the race route, initially forcing the postponed of the events.
It was announced on the day that the women’s race would start at the delayed time of 4pm with the vets getting underway at 4.30pm. Both events were to be shortened from six laps to five; or 114km to 95km.
However, just a few hours after announcing the changed time table, the host club was forced to concede the events would not take place because the road closures linked to the traffic accident remained in force all day.
Now rescheduled to Saturday, September 20th, the vets' and women's races will take place on the same tough circuit as the elite men's race which started and finished in Multyfarnham.
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Mel Spath (leading) in last year’s National Road Race Championships, which she won in a sprint from a reduced bunch. She faces a tough test in trying to retain her title in two months in Westmeath (Photo: www.blackumbrella.ie)
A statement from Lakeside Wheelers race director Joe Duffy this weekend said he was pleased to announce the new details of the races.
"Since (the cancelled events) we have been working with Cycling Ireland, Westmeath County Council, Gardai and Civil Defence to rearrange a suitable date on the same race route.
"The consensus view after the (elite men's) race was that we had produced a challenging and worthy route for the national championships so we were very keen to secure the same route for the rescheduled women's and vets' races.
"It takes a minimum of six weeks to get a closed road order and finding a date on the cycling calendar was another challenge. We have successfully negotiated these hurdles and are now looking forward to hosting what promises to be two great events.
Sign on and parking will be in the same location in Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath, on Saturday, September 20th.
Further information will be announced shortly regarding entries and start times for both events and we will bring you that here on stickybottle immediately we have it.
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